(No. 21. p. 329.)
The Registrar-General, in his Eighth Report, enters at length into the
causes which have brought about the variations in the number of
marriages, and consequently, as I need scarcely say, of births. In
comparing the marriage returns since 1754, which are given in the
report, with the history of events since that period, he certainly makes
it clear, to use his own words, that "The marriage returns in England
point out periods of prosperity little less distinctly than the funds
measure the hopes and fears of the money-market." (p. 26. 8vo. edit.)